People 60 to 70 years old with a high BMI may have poorer memory and thinking skills than their thinner counterparts do. The association seems to be especially pronounced for seniors with extra belly fat. Those are the findings of a study done by Dae Hyun Yoon and colleagues at the Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System in South Korea and published in the journal Age and Ageing.
"Our findings have important public health implications. The prevention of obesity, particularly central obesity, might be important for the prevention of cognitive decline or dementia," Yoon said in a journal news release.
Note however that while the study found that obese people between 60 and 70 tended to have a decline in thinking skills, cause and effect was not established. Also, there was no association between overweight and cognitive decline for participants over 70. Even so, why not consider the findings of this study to be one more reason to maintain a healthy weight?
